Ikea Adds Irish Wind Farm To Go With All That Solar

Most heavyweight retailers do solar by offering up their big roofs to developers and then leasing the installed system or just buying the power through a long-term agreement. Not Ikea. Ikea owns.

That’s the approach to wind, too – and the global home furniture leader has moved to add another set of turbines to its wind-power stable, making a deal to purchase the 7.65 megawatt Carrickeeny Wine Farm in Ireland.

No purchase price was given in the deal wind announced by seller Mainstream Renewable Power, the company building the project in Leitrim in northwest Ireland (it’s expected to begin turning out power next year).

“Owning wind and solar plants makes a lot of sense for them on a number of levels,” Mainstream chief executive Eddie O’Connor said in a statement. “As the cost of the fuel is free, the more of it they have the more stability and certainty they have in relation to their energy costs in the long-term. On top of that, the more forward-thinking corporations are investing in wind and solar energy as part of their sustainability strategy, and IKEA is a fantastic example of this.”

Hard to argue with that.

According to the statement, the acquisition will boost the total number of wind turbines that IKEA Group has committed to owning and operating to 137. By 2015, Ikea figures to have invested nearly $2.3 billion in wind as it strives to match its energy consumption with renewable energy generation before the end of this decade.

“Companies, individuals or governments – we all have responsibility to address the resource dilemma and commit to a more sustainable future,” said Joanna Yarrow, head of sustainability for Ikea in the U.K. and Ireland. “Producing our own affordable, renewable electricity gets us one step closer to becoming completely energy independent by 2020, while ensuring our commercial success.”

It was just over a month ago that Ikea opened a wind farm with seven turbines at Rämsberget in the Malung-Sälen Municipality in Dalarna, Sweden. That gave Ikea 46 operating large turbines.